Late Fall 2018
November 09, 2018
How long have you been teaching financial education?
Five years
Why do you teach financial education?
I teach financial education to empower my students to make good financial choices and to be confident in those choices. Almost every day I get an eye opening glance from a student who never really speaks up or a fun story from another student about a financial situation they have been in or something that they want to know about. It makes it an exciting course to teach.
How is this different from other courses you have taught?
Everything that you need as a teacher is provided for you which is really convenient. Also there are really great applications and activities that apply concepts to the real world which students love.
What do students like most about the course?
There are so many things. Students are really interested in learning about financial concepts because they realize they need to know about them both now and as they enter into the “adult world”. I love how engaged the students are with the curriculum.
How does your school fit a single-semester course into their curriculum.
During senior year our students have an elective math class. We are able offer Financial Education as an option for that elective course.
Were there any challenges to implementing?
I had to get it approved with an administrator, so I gathered some data and evidence on why financial education is so worthwhile. We already had the semester course set up as an elective which made it relatively easy to switch from an Algebra course to a Financial Education course.
Do you have any implementation tips or successes that you want to share with others?
The framework for everything that you need is provided for you in the course materials. You can expand on it from there. If you are having a busy day, you can use exactly what they have to save some planning time. If you have more time or get inspired by an idea, you can develop it or expand on the concepts as you please. There are some awesome activities that the students really get engaged with!